S. Korea To Host Cosmetics Fair In U.S.

South Korea will host a cosmetics fair in the United States this week to help small and medium-sized cosmetics makers tap into the world's largest market, the commerce ministry said Tuesday.

SEOUL, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Sep, 2018 ) :South Korea will host a cosmetics fair in the United States this week to help small and medium-sized cosmetics makers tap into the world's largest market, the commerce ministry said Tuesday.

Twenty South Korean cosmetics manufacturers will hold one-on-one export consultation sessions with 60 major U.S. cosmetics buyers in New York on Wednesday.

Additionally, 15 South Korean companies will participate in a conference on beauty and health, which the U.S. Global Market Development Center is slated to hold in Orlando, Florida, from Friday to Monday, and will have export consultation sessions with 56 major American distributors, the ministry added.

The event is the second of its kind. The ministry and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) jointly organized the inaugural fair in the U.

S. last year.

The fair reflects Seoul's push to expand exports of so-called K-beauty products to the world's largest cosmetics market. Sales are currently concentrated in China and other Asian nations where South Korean pop culture has caught on.

South Korea's cosmetics exports soared to US$4.96 billion in 2017 from $1.24 billion four years earlier, thanks to the spread of the Korean Wave, the popularity of Korean songs and tv dramas abroad.

Nearly 40 percent of the overseas shipments went to China, with Hong Kong accounting for 25 percent and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) taking up 11 percent.

South Korea's cosmetics exports to the U.S. jumped 28 percent on-year to $450 million in 2017 but accounted for a mere 5.5 percent of the American market, which is worth $86 billion.